


After Class

by Edollhouse



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Flirting, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28455114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edollhouse/pseuds/Edollhouse
Summary: Johnny and Daniel are now coaching together, but Daniel feels Johnny is less than professional when interacting with the students' moms.“Huh,” he said. It was barely a sound, but it made Johnny spin on his heel to face him.“What?” Johnny asked, immediately suspicious.“Nothing.” Daniel shook his head in a way that suggested they’d forget the whole thing, but Johnny wouldn’t let him off the hook that easily. “You always flirt with the moms?”
Relationships: Amanda LaRusso/Daniel LaRusso (mentioned), Carmen Diaz/Johnny Lawrence (mentioned), Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 5
Kudos: 213





	After Class

Daniel and Johnny had coached together for a few weeks, and Daniel was finally starting to possibly acknowledge that it hadn’t been a terrible idea. Sure, their teaching styles were a bit different, a lot different, but some would say complementary. They planned their lessons together and they never argued in front of the students. That had been the deal. That and that they didn’t tell either students or parents that they now were a couple. Of course they had told their children, and Amanda, and Lucille, but no one else. Johnny insisted he didn’t care either way, but Daniel hadn’t felt he was ready yet. 

Daniel was about to put away some equipment after practice when he heard voices outside the dojo through the half open door.

“So when are you going to start a class for parents?” 

Daniel looked up, half hidden by a pillar, to see two of the women who had come to pick up their kids talking to Johnny. The two women had their backs to him, but he still recognized one of them, Mrs. Dale, Aaron’s mom, but not the other one. 

“Oh, I don’t know . . . Why? Would you ladies be interested?” Johnny asked with a friendly tone that he reserved for parents who needed to be reassured that karate wasn’t dangerous. Not that the tone was very reassuring, more distracting, some might even have said charming. Daniel wondered why he was using that now. 

Despite that Daniel was the businessman and Johnny barely knew how to read an income statement, Johnny had been forced to think of revenue and number of paying students in a way that Daniel hadn’t when he’d chosen to revive Miyagi-do. Was Johnny thinking of starting a class for parents? That wasn’t something they had discussed. 

“Sure,” both women hurried to agree, though Daniel doubted very much it was the karate they were interested in.

“Yeah? What about your husbands?” It was asked with a conspiratorial smile and Daniel rolled his eyes, but to his shock and horror, the two women looked at each other and giggled.

“I think my husband attended a couple of classes back in the 80s, but now I’m not sure he would pull off the . . . my daughter tells me it’s called a gi?” said the woman who wasn’t Mrs. Dale.

“See, already got the lingo down,” Johnny smiled and Daniel wondered what he was playing at. Being a car salesman most of his adult life, Daniel could tell the difference between a smile that wanted to sell you a car and a smile that wanted to show off a car. Johnny was definitely showing off. 

“How long would it take you to get my husband into the shape you’re in?” Mrs. Dale asked with feigned innocence as she let her gaze travel along Johnny’s torso. 

Daniel had to look away in case they would look over and see the disdain in his eyes. He had sold Mr. Dale a Porsche about a year ago. The man was his age, but worked in an office and Daniel would have been surprised if Mr. Dale had done any other exercise than golf for the last ten years. As much as he hated to admit it, Daniel knew that Johnny was in even better shape than he was and the idea that Mr. Dale would ever get into the shape Johnny was in was ludicrous. It would have taken one of those Captain America serums. 

Johnny laughed, clearly enjoying himself. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time for more classes at the moment, but I have talked about a collaboration with Sarah who does the yoga here. So stay tuned,” He sent them one last smile before walking back into the building. 

The two women watched him go and Daniel hid behind the pillar so that they wouldn’t see him and realize he had been listening in.

“I must say, I’m happy Aaron started doing this karate thing,” Mrs. Dale told her friend. “It’s clearly good exercise.”

“Oh, yes,” her friend agreed. “And sensei Lawrence’s just . . . great with the kids.”

Mrs. Dale tore her eyes from Johnny to look at her. “Oh, yes, terrific . . . I should go, I promised Patrick I would pick up something for dinner.”

The women left and Daniel could relax. Then he went after Johnny into the back office where Johnny was scribbling something on a piece of paper. 

“We’re doing a collaboration with the yoga class?” Daniel asked, arms crossed and leaning on the doorframe.

Johnny sent him a surprised look. “What?” Daniel just shrugged and Johnny continued. “Nah, no collaboration, but now they know there’s a yoga class in case they’re interested. I’ve told Sarah we’d throw people her way if we could.”

He was done writing and walked back out into the now empty hall. Daniel slowly followed him, studying him.

“Huh,” he said. It was barely a sound, but it made Johnny spin on his heel to face him. 

“What?” Johnny asked, immediately suspicious. 

“Nothing.” Daniel shook his head in a way that suggested they’d forget the whole thing, but Johnny wouldn’t let him off the hook that easily. 

He folded his arms and stared Daniel down. “If I wanted passive aggression, I would have dated a chic. Spit it out!”

Daniel chose to ignore his comment. He took his time, wanting to show with his reluctance that it was Johnny who had insisted they would continue the conversation. He was going for chill, but his words still came out as an accusation. “You always flirt with the moms?”

“What?” This time Johnny sounded much less defensive and just simply surprised, and Daniel wondered what Johnny had thought he was going to say. 

“Something Kresse taught you?” Daniel jabbed. 

Johnny couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous thought. Kreese had considered parents, and any other authority that could challenge his own, a threat. He had not flirted with any moms. Quite the opposite, he had openly discouraged parents from coming to the dojo and even to the competitions, which he had considered a place for senseis and their fighting students, not ‘oversensitive uninitiated bystanders’. 

“He never flirted with the moms. Neither do I.”

Daniel looked at him as though he was stupid. “I was on a double date with you and a mom.”

Johnny studied him for a second with genuine confusion and a bit annoyance. “Really, LaRusso? ’A mom’? Carmen’s not ‘a mom’.” Then he realized what he’d just said. “I mean, she’s a mom, but she’s not . . . You were married to a mom! I don’t have to justify myself to you.”

“Never said you did,” was the haughty reply. “Just think it’s a bit inappropriate.” The last part was muttered under his breath as he made his way over to the mat.

Johnny’s confusion was only growing. “That I went on a date with Carmen?”

“No . . .” Daniel looked at him as though he was trying to figure out if Johnny was just playing dumb. “That!” he shouted-whispered and gestured towards the now empty parking lot.

Johnny looked out at the parking lot and then back at Daniel and smirked at him. “Oh, wow! Is that it? You’re jealous because they don’t flirt with you.”

“So you admit there’s flirting.”

Johnny folded his arms, the confusion was finally cleared up and he was back in business. “I admit to nothing. You admit being jealous I have more game than you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Daniel scoffed before giving Johnny a pointed look. “You better not be having more game than me,” he warned.

Johnny smirked. “Ha! Knew it.” He walked over to Daniel, took a quick look around to make sure they were alone before placing his arms around the shorter man’s waist. “You know you’re the only parent I want to teach.”

Despite himself, Daniel smiled, looking at the part of Johnny’s chest that was visible with the half open gi. He couldn’t really blame Mrs. Dale’s friend for peaking. “Think it’s I who should be teaching you,” he mumbled.

He’d barely finished the sentence before he felt a leg hook his own and half a second later he was back down on the mat with a knee pressing on his chest.

“What the hell, Johnny!” He looked up angrily at Johnny, who was staring down at him with his best sensei scowl. 

“First lesson: humility.”

At that, Daniel couldn’t do anything but laugh. He was lying on the mat laughing until Johnny was laughing too. Then, when his boyfriend least suspected it, he grabbed Johnny’s wrist and pulled him in for a kiss. 

-

A week later, Daniel saw Johnny talking to another mom. Katie was Ana’s mom, and since Ana had been one of the Miyagi-do students, Daniel felt even stronger that it was definitely inappropriate that Katie was laughing loudly at whatever unfunny thing Johnny had just said. He tried his best to quickly but nonchalantly walk over to them, but could tell from Johnny’s amused look that he hadn’t succeeded with the latter. 

“Daniel, this is Katie,” Johnny introduced the good-looking redheaded woman and Daniel gave him a smile that resembled a smirk. 

“Katie and I have met. How are you, Katie?”

Katie smiled at him. “Hi, Daniel, I was just talking to sensei Lawrence.” Daniel had to bite down and focus not to roll his eyes. Why did all these parents, especially the moms, insist on referring to Johnny as ‘sensei Lawrence’? They had no problem calling him ‘Daniel’. 

Johnny grinned. “Katie was just telling me about her workout routine.”

Daniel couldn’t help but being disappointed in Katie. He’d thought she would’ve known better. 

“Yes, I was just going to say, I actually do a bit of karate.”

“Really?” Daniel sounded overly enthusiastic and Katie turned to him, missing Jonny’s skeptical look. “So do you have a teacher? Do you compete?”

Johnny rolled his eyes at Daniel’s naïve questions. Being a sensei with paying students who on occasion had had to get a rabies shot after practice, Johnny had had to learn how to talk to these people. He’d also learned to decipher what parents, mostly the moms, meant when they said things like this. If Katie said that she did ‘a bit of karate’, he doubted that would involve tournaments. He’d bet it consisted of either a one-week camp of some kind when she was in her teens (he’d heard a couple of those) or one session with a private gym teacher (a growing number among the parents). 

Katie let out a little laugh at Daniel’s questions. “Well, it’s a class at my gym. It’s really fun, a sort of mix between muay thai, karate, kickboxing and some other stuff . . . I think there is a Brazilian one as well. Oh! Capoeira, that’s it!” She pronounced ‘Capoeira’ with an exaggerated Portuguese accent. 

Katie seemed happy to have remembered and Johnny was happy she was still looking at Daniel so he could bite his lip to stop himself from laughing out loud at Daniel’s face. 

Daniel nodded at her words, but his jaw tensed and it was evident that he did not consider this ‘doing karate’. Neither did Johnny, but he enjoyed teasing Daniel a bit. 

“That’s great,” he said, letting on a bit of the smile and Katie turned back to him and Daniel gave him a look that asked what the hell he was doing. “Like a smorgasbord of martial arts, trying all of them.”

He had to focus again so that he didn’t start laughing. Daniel looked at him as though he was the worst kind of traitor.

“Right?” Katie answered, returning Johnny’s smile, but then Daniel interrupted her. 

“Yes, only you’re not actually practicing any of them.” He had clearly tried to make it sound diplomatic, like he was just stating a fact, but it came off as rude. Katie threw Johnny a questioning look and Johnny made a light shrug to indicate he had no idea why Daniel was acting like this. 

“Didn’t know you were such a purist,” Johnny unashamedly baited him.

Before Daniel could answer, Katie added with some edge. “I’m doing tai chi as well, just tai chi.”

Johnny wished he had popcorn. Daniel’s apologetic almost guilty look was priceless when he said, “If it is the one they do at the club . . . technically not a martial art.”

Johnny had to admit, LaRusso had balls. Katie looked like Daniel had just slapped her and that she wanted to slap him back.

“I mean, it’s good for you, but-” Daniel tried and Johnny decided to defuse the situation before Katie would actually hit Daniel. He placed a light hand on her elbow and led her towards the car, leaving Daniel behind. 

“Just ignore him, he’s not been himself since the divorce. Tai chi is definitely a martial art, like a peaceful one. Well, I don’t have to tell you.”

When Johnny returned to Daniel, Daniel was still upset and Johnny was still laughing. 

“Why did you tell her that tai chi is not a martial art? Robby’s told me you love all that kata shit.”

“Yes, kata as a foundation for karate. I know which class she’s taking, same as Amanda. They don’t do any of the self-defense stuff, just the healthy meditation bit. It’s basically tai chi inspired yoga, so there’s nothing martial about it. And what were you on about?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, all that ‘smorgasbord of martial arts’-crap. I thought you beat up a guy once because he didn’t know the difference between karate and kung fu.”

“I was being nice,” Johnny informed him as though this wouldn’t be something totally out of character for him. “What were you doing? The woman mentions karate and you ask if she competes. Are you stupid? I thought you wanted to talk more to the moms. Those insults won’t get us any more students, and some of us actually rely on paying customers.”

“So reliant that when you flirt with them you’re selling out what we do here?”

Johnny studied him, head to the side and arms crossed. “Want to know what I think?” His voice was perfectly calm, as though he was genuinely asking, but he didn’t wait for a reply. “I think you might not be jealous because they flirt with me, but because you think I flirt with them.”

Daniel didn’t answer, just gave him the same sullen look Robby often gave him. Johnny wondered who had taken after whom. Clearly Daniel wasn’t going to dignify his theory with an answer.

“Maybe I talk to her like that because I don’t care if she knows the difference between karate and kung fu. Maybe I only value the opinion of someone who knows the difference between kata and tai chi.”

After a few seconds of taking this in, Daniel answered with a teasing little smile slowly spreading over his face. “Are you saying you value my opinion?” 

Johnny did not smile back. “Are you saying you feel threatened by all the hot moms coming on to me?”

Daniel’s smile lessened. “You know those things are totally unrelated, right?”

Johnny took a step closer. “What, your insecurities and that you’re aching for my approval?” He made a scoffing sound. “Yeah, totally unrelated.”

For a moment Johnny thought he had the upper hand. Then he remembered that despite being hotheaded, Daniel’s strength had never been to strike first, but this calculated dish served cold bullshit. Daniel was looking at him as though he had figured something out, and he was smiling again.

“I don’t think I’m the only one who’s insecure and aching for approval.”

“No, most of my students-” Daniel didn’t let him finish.

“Johnny, please, I thought we were having a moment here.” Johnny remained silent. Daniel closed the gap between them. “If I admit that I might have been a bit jealous, will you admit that you have tried to make me jealous?”

“I can’t help that I’m hot,” Johnny shot back without thinking. He hadn’t intentionally flirted with the moms to make Daniel jealous, so he was not going to admit to anything, but who knew? He did so much without thinking, he wouldn’t put it past himself to subconsciously come up with something like that. He prepared for Daniel’s scolding, but it didn’t come.

“I know you’re hot . . . But making me jealous doesn’t make me want you more, I’m not sure that’s even possible. It only distracts me.” He leaned up and kissed him. 

“Yeah, you seem to get pretty prissy about it,” Johnny mumbled, but then spoke up. “Ok, I can’t stop being the babe magnet that I am.” Daniel was about to interrupt him again and Johnny hurried to continue. “But, I promise I won’t let anyone get away with calling some country club shit gym class karate again.”

“Ok, sounds good.” Daniel decided that small victories were victories too. He threw a look at Johnny. “And maybe we don’t have to be so secretive about us anymore. I’m pretty sure some of them already know anyway.”

Johnny grinned. Sometimes, his subconscious was really smart.


End file.
